Houston Rockets

Winners of back-to-back NBA championships in 1994 and 1995, the Rockets continue to be top competitors in the Western Conference of the NBA.

The Houston Rockets were introduced to the NBA as the San Diego Rockets in 1967, the same year that the American Basketball Association launched itself as a rival league. Despite boasting the great Elvin Hayes through the early years, the Rockets never caught on in San Diego and moved to Houston after only four seasons.

The franchise stumbled through its first five years in Houston before acquiring Moses Malone early in the 1976-77 campaign. Malone put the club on his hulking shoulders and carried the Rockets to respectability. Ralph Sampson and Hakeem Olajuwon bore the big-man banner in the 1980s and into the 1990s, posting impressive seasons. Eventually Olajuwon would lead the Rockets to back-to-back championship banners in 1994 and 1995.